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Designed to shape your business.

IT Services Firm Deploys Modern ERP Solution, Cuts Support Costs by $400,000

Computer Aid selects SAGlobal for its expertise in professional service after considering several options to implement Microsoft Dynamics 365. With project accounting capabilities, they were able to track all labor against customer billable projects, sales, other general and administrative expenses. The firm also relies on professional services automation functionality for costing, billing and project accounting. With this Modern ERP Solution from microsoft Dynamics 365 they Cut Support Costs by $400,000.

Business Needs

Global IT services provider Computer Aid Inc. has maintained an entrepreneurial culture that is typical of much smaller companies. Its management approach rewards individual ownership and success, which helped the firm achieve US$300 million in revenue in 2011, $50 million of which was new business. From its headquarters in Allentown, Pennsylvania, and offices across the United States, and in Europe, Australia, and the Philippines, Computer Aid competes with other global professional IT services providers in providing technology support and managed staffing services.

Maintaining that culture of personal investment became painful and difficult, however, as people interacted with outdated software. To manage its business, Computer Aid had integrated its highly customized general ledger software with Intuit QuickBooks, which the firm’s overseas offices used, multiple time entry programs, and other client service and administrative applications. Company leaders realized that this system would undermine responsiveness to clients and hinder the company’s prospects for further expansion.

Andy McIntyre, CFO at Computer Aid, remarks, “It’s in our DNA to build rather than buy, but over time, this resulted in 15 individual systems that were aggregated through internally developed tools and held together with Microsoft Excel spreadsheets.” Computer Aid faced several challenges:

Difficulty gaining business insights: With monthly, static reports, people found it difficult to gain the timely operational insight they needed to drive success. Working with multiple systems, McIntyre says, “We’d inevitably run into disparities in data. Among a group of 25 people, we were maintaining more than 250 spreadsheets outside the core accounting system to manage the business.”

Customized billing: To customize invoice information according to customer needs, the firm had to produce free text invoices, a process that delayed invoicing.

Change in accounting method: Computer Aid wanted to change from a modified cash basis to an accrual basis for internal reporting purposes. This would have been very difficult with the existing system.

High support costs:“We ended up with a solution that required the equivalent of six full-time people to manage and support,” says McIntyre.

The firm wanted to bring all practice and financial management into a single system, make information more reliable and personally insightful, and provide timely access to it.

Solution

To improve access to profitability and performance management information in a flexible, modern technology platform, Computer Aid deployed Microsoft Dynamics 365 and went live with it in March 2011. Approximately 40 people in corporate accounting use the core system, about 200 access rich, interactive reports through PowerPivot for Microsoft Excel, and 1,300 employees enter time and report expenses via portal-based applications in Microsoft Dynamics 365 by using an Internet browser.

The enterprise resource planning (ERP) software supports the finance department with accrual-based accounting and gives people the tools and reports they need, with the flexibility to conduct business the way they are accustomed to working. “What attracted us to Microsoft Dynamics 365 were the price point and the fact that we could tailor it to our needs,” explains Derek Sager, Director of Finance at Computer Aid. “I came from organizations that used SAP and Oracle. These alternatives are costly; would have given us, essentially, a ‘process-in-a-box’, and lacked the option to tailor them affordably, if at all, to match our way of doing business.”

Computer Aid considered several qualified implementation partners but selected SAGlobal for its expertise in professional services. “The people from SAGlobal asked the right questions, demonstrated that they understood our unique needs, and took the time to demonstrate how we could meet our needs by using Microsoft Dynamics 365,” says McIntyre.

Benefits

Computer Aid can consolidate financial and business management of all its operating units in Microsoft Dynamics 365, ultimately positioning the firm for the next stage of growth.

Empower People with Interactive Reporting

In the old system, conducting analyses typically required submitting a request to the finance team. “Now, with robust, self-service reporting based on real-time data in Microsoft Dynamics 365, people can understand what is happening in the business, see trends, and act on them,” says McIntyre. “Self-service reporting fits our culture of individual ownership and contributes to our corporate success. People can use a familiar tool, Excel, to access it and, because the reports connect to Microsoft Dynamics 365, the spreadsheets update with the current version of the data.”

Client Profile

Computer Aid is a global IT services firm that is currently managing active engagements with more than 100 Fortune 1000 companies and government agencies around the world.